Category Archives: Chris Duffy

Former Phillies prospect Jonathan Singleton (Astros AA) is tagged out at second by Jean Segura (Angels AA) during the Futures Game on July 8. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Hindsight is and always will be 20/20 for the viewer.

A look back at four of the biggest trades Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro has made will raise two opinions: 1) Amaro pulled some seriously big names from Cleveland, Toronto and Houston; 2) Amaro also depleted the Phillies farm system so much that it ranks near the bottom of baseball currently.

Let’s cut to the point: Jonathan Singleton (23), Travis d’Arnaud (19) and Anthony Gose (38) rank in the top 50 in Baseball America’s prospect list. The Phillies have none on that list.

For a while it’s bothered me that those three names are very close to being every day Major Leaguers with the potential to be very good mainstays in the bigs. It wasn’t until Matt Gelb went to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City to watch the Phillies past and future prospects play and wrote a fantastic piece this morning that I had to at least say something about it beyond an occasional tweet.

LAKEWOOD, NJ — Lost in the excitement of Chase Utley’s return in a Phillies uniform is the first big step taken by the Big Piece in Lakewood.

Ryan Howard was good in his first start with the Single-A BlueClaws, driving in three runs in their 7-6 win over West Virginia.

Howard went 2-for-4, driving in three-runs as the designated hitter. Howard’s biggest at-bat came in the 9th inning for Lakewood, who rallied from a 6-0 hole to win.

With the bases loaded, Howard hit a towering fly ball that was deep enough to score the run from third and pull the BlueClaws within one. Next hitter, hot-hitting Chris Duffy, ripped a two-run single that won the game for Lakewood.

“My focus was to get one run home and let ‘Big Duff’ take care of the rest,” Howard said. “I told him before he even went up there, I said, ‘Hey, be ready to win this game, man.’ I just went up there and did my thing, and he came through.”